Caesarea is one of the most spectacular journeys back in time in Israel: a city and port that King Herod the Great had built from nothing, more than two thousand years ago, to honour the Roman emperor Augustus (Caesar Augustus, hence its name). What was a bare coastline became, thanks to a colossal feat of engineering, one of the great cities of the eastern Mediterranean, with an artificial harbour made of hydraulic concrete that was a technical marvel of the ancient world. Today you can walk its ruins on the seashore, in one of the most beautiful archaeological parks in the country.
Caesarea National Park packs in layer upon layer of history: the restored Roman theatre (which hosts concerts once again), Herod's palace jutting into the sea on a promontory, the great hippodrome where chariots raced, the Byzantine baths and churches, and above all the impressive Crusader city, with its walls, moat and medieval harbour. Pontius Pilate governed here, the apostle Paul was imprisoned here, and Romans, Jews, Byzantines, Arabs and Crusaders fought battles here over the centuries.
Beyond the archaeology, Caesarea wins you over with its setting: columns and arches silhouetted against the blue Mediterranean, the Herodian harbour now turned into a pleasant promenade with waterfront restaurants, and the Roman aqueduct running across the sand of the beach, one of the most photographed spots in Israel. This guide helps you plan your visit: what to see in the park, how much it costs, how to get there without a car, when to go to avoid the heat and how to combine Caesarea with Tel Aviv or Haifa on an unforgettable day trip.
Caesarea Maritima was a city entirely planned and built by King Herod the Great between 22 and 10 BC, on the site of an old Phoenician anchorage called Straton's Tower. Herod dedicated it to the emperor Augustus (Caesar) and gave it a gigantic artificial harbour, made with concrete that set underwater, a feat of Roman engineering. For centuries it was the capital of the Roman province of Judaea: the governor Pontius Pilate lived here —his existence is attested by an inscription found on the site, the famous 'Pilate Stone'—, the apostle Paul was imprisoned here, and in AD 66 the great Jewish revolt against Rome began here. It was an important centre of early Christianity and, in Byzantine times, a great city home to scholars such as Origen and Eusebius. It fell to the Arabs in the 7th century, was reconquered and walled by the Crusaders —who gave it its medieval shape— and was finally razed by the Mamluks in 1265. Buried by dunes for centuries, it was rediscovered and excavated in the 20th century. All of that history, from Herod to the Crusaders, is told on our history page.
Read the full history ↓The Mediterranean plain where the first modern Hebrew city was born, next to the ancient port of Jaffa and the Roman ruins of Caesarea: the country's modern face built on layers of Antiquity.
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Origins, formation and what the sources say.
Few cities of the ancient world were born of such a pure act of will as Caesarea. Where you now walk among its ruins by the sea, a little over two thousand years ago there was nothing but a modest Phoenician anchorage called Straton's Tower, on a straight coastline with no natural shelter. It was King Herod the Great, the ambitious and controversial ruler of Judea and an ally of Rome, who decided to build an entire city there between 22 and 10 BC, modern and monumental, in the latest Roman style.
Herod dedicated it to the emperor Augustus (Caesar Augustus), his patron, which is why he named it Caesarea ('the city of Caesar'). He spared no expense. It had a theatre, a hippodrome for chariot races, temples, a palace for himself on a promontory reaching out into the sea, streets with sewers, baths and everything expected of a great imperial city. In barely a decade, a bare coastline became one of the most splendid cities in the eastern Mediterranean.
But Caesarea's jewel was its port, named Sebastos (the Greek name for Augustus). With no natural bay to work with, Herod's engineers built a gigantic artificial harbour, with huge breakwaters made of hydraulic concrete, a Roman material that could set underwater. It was an astonishing technical feat for its time: one of the largest artificial harbours ever built up to then, able to hold entire fleets. It turned Caesarea into a major trading centre that linked the region to the whole Empire.
After Herod's death and the annexation of Judea as a Roman province, Caesarea became the province's administrative and military capital and the seat of the Roman governor. For centuries it was the real centre of Roman power in the region, more so than Jerusalem itself. The procurators and prefects who governed Judea lived here, including the most famous of them all: Pontius Pilate, who, according to the Gospels, condemned Jesus.
It was in Caesarea, in 1961, that one of the most important archaeological inscriptions connected with the Gospels was found. Known as the 'Pilate stone', it is a limestone block with a dedication that mentions 'Pontius Pilate, prefect of Judea'. It is the only archaeological evidence of Pilate's historical existence found to date, and it confirms that he governed from Caesarea. The city also carries great weight in the history of early Christianity. According to the Acts of the Apostles, the centurion Cornelius converted here (one of the first non-Jews to do so), and the apostle Paul was held prisoner here for two years before appealing to Caesar and being sent by sea to Rome for trial.
Caesarea was also a powder keg. Relations between its Jewish population and its Greek and Syrian residents were tense, and an incident in the city in AD 66 was one of the sparks that set off the Great Jewish Revolt against Rome. That war would end with the destruction of the Temple in Jerusalem in the year 70. The general and future emperor Vespasian set up his base in Caesarea, and bloody spectacles with Jewish prisoners were staged here after the fall of Jerusalem.
Once the Roman Empire became Christian, Caesarea enjoyed a second golden age during the Byzantine period, between the 4th and 7th centuries. It became one of the largest and most prosperous cities in the region, with a population that may have reached tens of thousands. It had magnificent churches, colonnaded streets, markets and residential quarters with luxurious mosaics, many of which have come to light in the excavations.
Above all, Caesarea was a great intellectual centre of early Christianity. The theologian Origen, one of the most influential Christian thinkers of antiquity, lived and taught here and built up a celebrated library. Eusebius of Caesarea also worked here. He was the city's bishop in the 4th century and is considered the 'father of Church history' for his great work on the first centuries of Christianity. The library of Caesarea became one of the most important in the ancient world, a beacon of Christian learning.
In those centuries the city was also home to a sizeable Jewish and Samaritan community and was a centre of rabbinic study. Caesarea was a mosaic of peoples and religions, a reflection of the diversity of the late Roman Mediterranean. That long period of prosperity, however, would come to an end with the great upheavals of the 7th century: first a brief Persian conquest, and then, in 640, the arrival of a new power that would change the face of the whole region.
In 640, after a long siege, Caesarea fell to the Muslim Arab armies that were spreading out from Arabia. Under the new Islamic rule the city lost its role as a capital, since power moved to other cities, and it gradually shrank, although it remained inhabited for centuries as a coastal stronghold. Its great Herodian harbour, damaged by earthquakes and silted up, slowly fell apart until much of it lay underwater, where it remains today.
The next great chapter came with the Crusades. In 1101 the Crusaders took Caesarea. According to one tradition, they found a green glass bowl here that they believed was the Holy Grail (the 'Sacro Catino'). The city changed hands several times between Crusaders and Muslim armies, typical of the back and forth of that era: Saladin recaptured it, and the Christians later won it back. In the 13th century King Louis IX of France (Saint Louis) strengthened its defences and turned it into a medieval fortress town, much smaller than the old Roman city, with the imposing walls and moat that still survive.
The end came in 1265, when the Mamluk sultan Baibars conquered Caesarea and ordered it razed to the ground. He did the same to other coastal strongholds so they could never serve as a beachhead for future crusades. The city was destroyed and left practically empty. Over the centuries the sand dunes gradually covered it, and the memory of Herod's great Caesarea was lost beneath the coast, waiting to be rediscovered.
For almost seven hundred years Caesarea lay in ruins, covered by sand and forgotten. In the 19th century a village of Bosnian Muslim immigrants settled among the remains, reusing stones from the ancient city. Everything changed in the 20th century with the birth of the State of Israel and the rise of archaeology. From the 1950s and 1960s onwards, one excavation campaign after another uncovered the theatre, the hippodrome, the palace, the streets and mosaics of the great Roman and Byzantine city, and the Crusader walls.
The Roman theatre was restored and brought back to life as a concert venue, and the Crusader town was consolidated. The structures of the sunken harbour were studied through underwater archaeology, a field in which Caesarea is a world reference. In 2011 a modern visitor centre opened in the vaults by the harbour, and the whole area was organised as Caesarea National Park, one of the most visited in the country.
Today Caesarea brings past and present together in a unique way. Next to the archaeological site lies a modern upmarket residential town with a golf course, while the ruins draw travellers from all over the world. You can stroll among Roman columns with the Mediterranean behind them, see Herod's palace lashed by the waves, cross the moat of the Crusader town and watch the sun set over the aqueduct on the beach. In a single place you get a glimpse of more than two thousand years of history: from the Rome of Augustus to the Crusaders, from Pontius Pilate to the archaeologists who brought this city back into the light.
